The Impact of Using News as a Primary Source in Classrooms

This article, by a high school senior who was working with Project Look Sharp’s Chris Sperry, explores the use of news as a primary text in a Humanities class to teach students to think critically about the news, world events, and their own perspectives.

RX For an Infodemic: Media Decoding, COVID-19, and Online Teaching

After describing the historical, political and social causes of our viral age of “fake news,” this article explore how constructivist media decoding provides a methodology for addressing the polarization of truth, with examples of how this work can be done in the classroom through face-to-face and virtual learning.

Checking the Facts: Media Literacy and Democracy

By integrating the process of critical questioning of media messages into the everyday classroom curriculum, we can help produce a citizenry with the skills needed to negotiate future threats to truth.

An Assessment of Student Critical Thinking Skills

This describes a high school level assessment of media literacy and metacognitive skills in which students examine a YouTube video, excerpts from an opinion article, and a webpage screenshot about GMOs and answer questions about media messages, authorship, purpose, bias, credibility and how the students’ own biases impact their analysis.

A Deeper Sense of Literacy

Related to kit: Media Constructions of War: A Critical Reading of History

Basic principles and best practices for using a curriculum-driven approach are described, with specific examples from social studies, English/Language arts, math, science, health, and art, along with methods of assessment used to address effectiveness in the classroom. By Cyndy Scheibe, American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 48 No. 1, September 2004.

High School Social Studies: Soviet History-Posters

Related to kit: Soviet History Through Posters: A Visual Literacy Kit

An example of leading a class through a constructivist media decoding using a lesson from our kit, Soviet History Through Posters. Students are led through a decoding of five Soviet government posters from 1918 to 1988, where they apply historical knowledge while practicing media literacy skills.

College Level: Decoding "Last Words" by Nas

Related to kit: Media Constructions of Social Justice

An example of leading a class through a constructivist media decoding using a lesson from our kit, Media Construction of Social Justice. Students in this video decode the rap song "Last Words" by Nas to gain insight about prison life and the greater justice system.

Critical Thinking and Health: Media Literacy Lessons for Elementary Grades

Related to kit: Critical Thinking & Health: Nutrition and TV Commercials

This webinar offers pedagogical techniques and curriculum materials to help young children understand biases and misleading messages found in food advertising and toy commercials aimed at them, including cereal ads and advertising for foods and beverages that imply they have a lot of fruit in them. Part of the webinar specifically focuses on gender techniques and gender stereotyping in toy commercials.

Elementary Level: Gender In Children's Commercials

Related to kit: Critical Thinking & Health: Nutrition and TV Commercials

An example of leading a class through a constructivist media decoding using a lesson from our kit, Critical Thinking and Health. Students in this video decode the commercial "Magic Kissing Dragons" to analyze media messaging about gender.

Elementary Level: Paintings of George Washington and King George

Related to kit: Causes of the American Revolution

An example of leading a class through a constructivist media decoding using a lesson from our kit, Causes of the American Revolution. Students in this video decode differences in paintings of George Washington and King George.

High School English: Examining Credibility and Bias in Web Sites

Related to kit: Media Constructions of Martin Luther King, Jr.

An example of leading a class through a constructivist media decoding using a lesson from our kit, Media Constructions of Martin Luther King Jr. Students analyze the white supremacist website martinlutherking.org and reflect on critical thinking and the internet.

High School Global Studies: The Politics of Maps: Israel/Palestine

Related to kit: Media Constructions of the Middle East

An example of leading a class through a constructivist media decoding using a lesson from our kit, Media Construction of the Middle East. Students in this video learn to understand the level of bias in maps.

High School Students Speak about Media Decoding in Social Studies

Ninth through eleventh graders at the Lehman Alternative Community School in Ithaca, New York, speak about the importance of integrating media analysis into social studies.

Media Violence & Conflict Resolution

This 2-hour workshop explores the potential effects of verbal and physical violence shown in movies, TV, and video games on children and teens, and demonstrates ways in which K-8 teachers, community educators, and parents can address these effects through discussion and media literacy activities.

Piaget and the Power Rangers: What Can Theories of Developmental Psychology Tell Us About Children and Media?

Theories of developmental psychology can help to interpret evidence related to how children of different ages are affected differently by media consumption. By Cyndy Scheibe, 20 Questions About Youth and Media, Vol. 48 No. 1, September 2007

Secondary School Social Studies: WWI Propaganda Posters

Related to kit: Economics in U.S. History: A Media Literacy Kit

An example of leading a class through a constructivist media decoding using a lesson from our kit, Economics in US History. Students in the video decode propaganda posters used in WWI.

Seeking Truth in the Social Studies Classroom: Media Literacy, Critical Thinking and Teaching about the Middle East

Students are bombarded daily with a torrent of media messages, many of them with historical content. By selecting the right media documents for decoding, teachers can teach core content while guiding students to think critcally about these messages. By Chris Sperry, Social Education, January/February 2006

The Epistemological Equation: Integrating Media Analysis into the Core Curriculum

Related to kit: Media Constructions of the Middle East

In his Keynote to National Association for Media Literacy Education biannual conference in 2009, Chris Sperry draws lessons from 30 years integrating media decoding into high school social studies and English classes. Beginning with a 6-minute video from a high school academic performance about the Middle East, Sperry connects media literacy methodologies and materials to the development of core knowledge, skills, attitudes and motivation in adolescents. By Chris Sperry, The National Association for Media Literacy Education's Journal of Media Literacy Education, Vol. 48 No. 1, September 2010.

Teaching Critical Thinking Through Media Literacy

Constructivist media decoding in the science classroom trains students to carefully examine information and messages in different types of media; to interpret meaning while applying knowledge and identifying document-based evidence; to ask a consistent set of questions about all media messages that address sourcing, meaning, and credibility; to draw well-reasoned conclusions after weighing the evidence, evaluating different interpretations, and reflecting on their own biases; and to share their observations and conclusions and defend their analysis. The teachers saw this technique as a way of teaching inquiry related to everyday messages in the media. By Chris Sperry, Science Scope, Summer 2012.

Media Constructions of Peace and Social Justice: Reflecting Diversity

Related to kit: Media Constructions of Martin Luther King, Jr.

The webinar offers educators and teachers-in-training pedagogical techniques and curriculum materials related to peace and social justice topics to support diversity in the media documents we choose for classroom decoding. We explore how to seek out and use diverse media sources to deepen critical thinking practice with our students.